Airbnb willing to collect occupancy tax

Airbnb says it is willing to help collect transient occupancy taxes in San Francisco as well as in New York City, thus potentially removing a bone of contention with municipal officials and hotel interests in both cities.

The statement, provided to a reporter, credited San Francisco Board of Supervisors President David Chiu with playing a constructive role in negotiating with Airbnb on the tax issue, as well as other potential changes to local law the company would like to see happen in order to make it legal for people in San Francisco to rent out their homes for short durations.

“We have been in substantive discussions with Board President David Chiu on these issues for some time, and we’d like to thank him for the open dialogue that helped lead to today’s announcement,” the company said.

Founded in 2008, Airbnb now operates in 34,000 cities around the world. As it exploded in popularity, the widespread renting of residences raised conflicts with local laws in numerous places, including in San Francisco, where it is not legal to rent out homes on a short term basis without permits.

Chiu, who has been working with Airbnb, hotel interests and others to develop legislation to legalize what Airbnb’s San Francisco hosts are already doing in large numbers, hailed Airbnb’s statement as a significant development. The occupancy tax rate is 14 percent of rent, but there has been no mechanism for collecting it on Airbnb.

Chiu noted that the occupancy tax issue was so important to hotel interests that it had united hotel management and union officials in calling for Airbnb users to be required to pay.

“I’m pleased to hear that Airbnb has acknowledged the need for their users to pay the occupancy tax,” Chiu said.

Other thorny obstacles still exist to making it legal to rent residences out on a short term basis, but Chiu said he is working on legislative language now and hopes to produce something for consideration soon.

“I’m hoping to introduce legislation to address these topics in the near future,” he said.

Chiu said he wants to give city residents flexibility to rent their residences while they are gone, but he also wants to protect the city’s stock of affordable housing and prevent displacement of people that could result from homes becoming quasi-hotels.

Jon Ballesteros, vice president of public policy at the San Francisco Travel Association, which markets San Francisco as a tourist destination, was also pleased by Airbnb's statement. Kevin Carroll, executive director of the Hotel Council of San Francisco, was expressed similar sentiments.

"We applaud Airbnb for taking this step. We know there is a segment of the traveling population that wants this option. We want it to be made avaiablle to them," Ballesteros said. "At the same time, we want a level playing field and this is a step in that direction."

Regarding New York City, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky also blogged Thursday on the company’s website that company was committed to working with city officials there to enable users of its service to pay transient occupancy taxes in a “less onerous” fashion, “with limited exemptions for those who earn under certain thresholds.”

The company also said it wants New York City to pass legislation allowing people to rent out their homes on a short term basis, and that it would set up a 24-hour hotline for reporting complaints about badly behaved renters. Chiu said dealing with inconsiderate guests is also a concern in San Francisco.

Late last month, Airbnb won a legal victory by getting New York City's Environmental Control Board to throw out a $2,400 fine that a judge had imposed on a man for renting out his apartment in violation of local law.

The judge agreed with Airbnb that under New York law as long as a permanent occupant is present during a stay, the stay does not violate the city’s short term rental laws.